Improving assessment tasks through addressing our unconscious limits to change
Article
Joughin, G., Dawson, P. and Boud, D. 2017. Improving assessment tasks through addressing our unconscious limits to change. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 42 (8), pp. 1221-1232. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1257689
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | Improving assessment tasks through addressing our unconscious limits to change |
Authors | Joughin, G., Dawson, P. and Boud, D. |
Abstract | Despite widespread recognition of the need to improve assessment in higher education, assessment tasks in individual courses are too often dominated by conventional methods. While changing assessment depends on many factors, improvements to assessment ultimately depend on the decisions and actions of individual educators. This paper considers research within the ‘heuristics and biases’ tradition in the field of decision-making and judgement which has identified unconscious factors with the potential to limit capacity for such change. The paper focuses on issues that may compromise the process of improving assessment by supporting a reluctance to change existing tasks, by limiting the time allocated to develop alternative assessment tasks, by underestimating the degree of change needed or by an unwarranted overconfidence in assessment design decisions. The paper proposes countering these unconscious limitations to change by requiring justification for changing, or not changing, assessment tasks, and by informal and formal peer review of assessment task design. Finally, an agenda for research on heuristics and biases in assessment design is suggested in order to establish their presence and help counter their influence. |
Keywords | Assessment design; change heuristics; biases; decision-making |
Research Group | Work and Learning Research Centre |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
Journal | Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education |
ISSN | 0260-2938 |
Electronic | 1469-297X |
Publication dates | |
Online | 17 Nov 2016 |
17 Nov 2017 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 22 Feb 2017 |
Accepted | 17 Nov 2016 |
Output status | Published |
Accepted author manuscript | |
Copyright Statement | This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education on 17/11/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02602938.2016.1257689 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1257689 |
Web of Science identifier | WOS:000413819800005 |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/86x74
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